As I get older, I’m starting to dislike the term “boyfriend” more and more. Especially when I’m referring to my boyfriend in a professional setting, it just sounds so juvenile to me.
Because in reality, my boyfriend is much more and much different than a boyfriend you’d have as a teenager. We live together, we own a dog together, we split bills and grocery shop together. We’re married without the rings and the wedding.
We’ve been in a relationship for almost 5 years and “boyfriend” just doesn’t seem to do the relationship justice.
What are my options? Get engaged and call him my fiancé and then get married and call him my husband? But we’re in no rush to tie the knot, and getting married would mean much more than the official title of husband and wife.
I guess we could go with “partner” but I don’t even like that. Sounds too official, even though we are official.
It definitely highlights the weird period of time I’m in. I have friends who are single, I have friends who have husbands, I have friends about to have babies, I have friends with fiancés, and I still have friends who call their significant others their boyfriends!
I wish there was an in-between kind of word to describe my relationship and even the time of life I’m in, but then again, I’m fine with not rolling with the “standards” of society.
Rosie Culture 
He’s your spouse. 🙂
Also I just found this (even though you’re back in NJ…):
New Hampshire: Common Law Marriage: “persons cohabiting and acknowledging each other as husband and wife, and generally reputed to be such, for the period of 3 years, and until the decease of one of them, shall thereafter be deemed to have been legally married.” (N.H. Stat. §457:39)
So on a technicality I think you could use husband. 😉
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haha true!! I think even in NJ we are common law married technically
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I have a hard time with the term, “husband.” To me, husband just sounds old. I got married when I was 24 going on 25 and I still call him my boyfriend (not in front of others, but to him I do).
When 50 year olds call their SO “boyfriend” that just sounds weird to me. But someone in their 20’s calling their SO husband also sounds weird to me 😂
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lmao 10000% on all of this! why does husband or spouse sound so old?? it’s all so weird
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You and I probably disagree on a lot when it comes to relationships, but at least we both agree on not liking the word “partner.”
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He’s your common law husband. Not all states recognize that, but as Bex pointed out, New Hampshire does.
Jamaica also has common law marriage and the spouses have the same rights i.e. they are both entitled to equal/equitable shares of the marital/common property.
An interesting thing about common law marriage is that you have no choice, haha. Once you meet those requirements, you’re married!
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